


Stones in the River

by sanctuary_for_all



Series: Home and Family [8]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, Feels, Fix-It, Gen, M/M, Retcon, Retcon Timeline, Sorting out a certain amount of nonsense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-25
Updated: 2019-04-26
Packaged: 2020-01-31 14:54:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18593560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctuary_for_all/pseuds/sanctuary_for_all
Summary: A small group of people can make all the difference in the universe. (Massive, MASSIVE retcon/AU/rewrite/fix-it for both "Avengers: Infinity War" and "Avengers: Endgame.")





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, as you can see from the dates on the previous fic in this series, I haven't really written anything with the proper Avengers in just about 4 years. With the movies from "Ultron" on being the mess that they were, I assumed I never would again. Even though I cried through most of "Infinity War," my series had diverged so strongly from canon (I rewrote "Ultron" and basically disregarded "Civil War") that I couldn't even imagine how to address it. 
> 
> Then "Endgame" happened, and one thing became clear. The best way to address canon was to just throw the whole thing out.
> 
> So here's my version of How The Team Finally Gets Rid of Thanos, starting back in 2015 when they should have started addressing the whole thing with Thanos and the Infinity Stones. It's going to be less spectacular and more feelsy than the movies, but on the plus side I've given the characters functioning brain cells and an overall sense of dignity. I'm also going to try and address various things that have been making my writer brain crazy, such as why Thanos had to have a pretty good idea of where all the stones were (he got them in one big rush) but waited for years after the messed up invasion of earth for... reasons, I guess. 
> 
> Technically, there might be spoilers, but this is mostly just a massive rewrite/retcon. 
> 
> (Timeline note: Since this is back in 2015, my universe's version of "Thor: Ragnarok" hasn't happened yet. I'll do a time jump in the epilogue to address that it happened, but I'm up against chronology here.)

**2015**

“I’ve run all the tests I can without letting someone I don’t necessarily trust see it.” Jane turned to Thor, the exhaustion of the last few months written clear on her face. She had taken the challenge of analyzing the Mind Stone to heart, and this was one battle he couldn’t fight with her. “Bruce said the radiation coming from it is mostly Gamma, Betty’s focus is biology, and the only tests Tony tends to run are proof of concepts for whatever new thing he’s invented. If you want a more detailed analysis, you’re going to have to go off planet.”

Thor gently pulled her close. “I trust no one’s mind more than yours. Tell me what you’ve found with the lesser Earth equipment you’ve been saddled with.”

The reference to the familiar joke made her relax slightly, though her expression didn’t change. “The stone vibrates the same way stars do. That vibration increased slightly in frequency over the last three months, and all indications are that it will only increase more with time. If it really is like a star, it suggests that something is changing in its inner workings. But the power inside it is so high that any other tests I try to run on it don’t even register.”

Thor nodded, thinking about the fact that three Infinity Stones had revealed themselves in what felt like the blink of an eye. Heimdall had also seen the Power Stone on Xandar, guarded by the Nova Corps, which made four artifacts of infinite power suddenly appearing within the span of only two human years. He’d lived too long to see that as any kind of coincidence.

Something was coming, and a true warrior of Asgard would do whatever was necessary to be prepared for it. “If you had better equipment, staff that could be trusted, and another stone to compare it to, would you be able to find out more?”

She leaned her head against his chest. “If you could magic that up, then sure.”

That decided it, then. “No magic required. All that and more is available on Asgard.”

That made her pull away enough to look up at him with a disbelieving expression. “You do remember your dad hates my guts, right? Me snapping and killing him would not only be bad for our relationship, but would probably get me kicked off the planet completely.”

Thor smiled a little. “Not a problem. My father is here on Earth. He escaped the senior facility my brother placed him in and is living in a small house in Norway. My brother is ruling Asgard, wearing my father’s face.”

Jane’s expression went through six different emotions at once before settling somewhere between shock and confusion. “Okay, I have several questions right now, but I’m going to narrow it down to just a few. One – how did you find all of this out? Two – why haven’t you gone back to Asgard to fix this? And three, why are you not more upset about this?”

Thor lifted his hands in a universal “I don’t know what you want me to say” gesture. “I haven’t gone back to Asgard to discredit him because Heimdall says that Loki is a good king. He’s mostly focused on writing plays about his death and making the roads safer.” He carefully lifted the stone’s protective container from its perch among Jane’s equipment. The old, familiar knot of emotion had risen up to tighten his throat, but even now he had not yet figured out how to put words to it. “I would be more upset if he had killed our father to take the position, but it’s really more like an enforced retirement. Besides, it could be argued that Loki is as good a ruler as our father was, if not better.”

Jane watched his face, realizing there was more he wasn’t saying. “You still haven’t told me how you figured all this out,” she asked gently, smoothing a hand up and down his arm.

He let out a long, careful breath. When he’d first realized what must have happened, confirming that Loki had taken the throne so gently he hadn’t even killed Odin, he’d wanted to rush back to Asgard and throw his arms around his brother. But Loki’s love had always come with teeth, and he didn’t think he could handle the inevitable bite that would come with this just yet.

He turned back to Jane. “When I told my father I had no desire to be king, I prepared myself for his disappointment. It could be a brutally cold thing, but I was certain I had chosen the correct course of action.” He hesitated, voice thick with emotion. “But he told me he was proud of me, of the man who would follow his heart rather than his father’s legacy. I had never imagined hearing such a thing from my father.” And this, this was the one thing he wasn’t sure he would ever be able to ask Loki about. Whether such a loving lie had come from true emotion, or simple convenience. “I should have known it wasn’t him.”

Her own expression going fragile, Jane immediately pulled him into a fierce hug. “Okay, let’s go to Asgard and see if the universe is in trouble,” she murmured, holding onto him like she could protect him from the world. “If Loki bothers us at all, I’ll just punch him again.”

Even Thor couldn’t stop a chuckle at that.

000

Nebula pulled up the hood of her cloak, glaring at the absurdly cheerful Asgardians passing by her on the street. The entire planet was giving her a headache, and even though she’d spent most of her life being tortured these “plays” about a supposedly magnificent death were an entirely new version of suffering. She didn’t understand how anyone could stand being on this planet.

Her mission was the only reason she was here at all. She wouldn’t be able to rest until her Father was utterly destroyed, and the best way to do that was to find the Infinity Stones before he could. She couldn’t take the Power Stone without drawing the attention of her sister and her friends – this is one fight she didn’t want Gamora anywhere near – but she had tracked the Space Stone to the Royal Treasury. She had found schematics for the palace, though they were centuries old, and people this arrogant wouldn’t believe in guards.

When the stone was hers, she would be in a better position to hunt down the others. Once she did, Father’s death was only a matter of time.

Once that happened, she might even consider this “smiling” she’d heard so much about.


	2. Chapter 2

It might have been because he’d technically qualified as an old man, but Steven Grant Rogers had learned to appreciate naps in a way that would have horrified his younger self. He’d hated falling asleep during the day when he was a kid, angry every time that his body’s energy level hadn’t been able to keep up with everything he’d burned to do. No matter how much his mother or Bucky had tried to convince him otherwise, it had felt more like a failure than a rest.

But his younger self had been an idiot, too focused on becoming something else that he hadn’t fully understood the treasure he’d had next to him. There was nothing in this _world_ better than falling asleep next to Bucky, in this case sprawling out on the couch with his head in Bucky’s lap. It was a nice, big couch, one Tony had specially chosen “to accommodate all the muscles you both have,” and his sketchbook was open face down on his chest. He was as warm and content as a person could possibly be, enough so that he wasn’t even afraid of the nightmares that still occasionally found him at night. All he had to do was finish closing his eyes….

The buzz of Bucky’s phone barely caught his attention, but the tired edge in Bucky’s voice when he responded was enough to pull him out of his drowse. It was Sharon, who was currently in Prague with Maria Hill handling the transport of Rumlow and some of the other HYDRA flunkies they’d caught recently. Sharon and Sam had also finally worked through all the snags and moved in to the Avengers Tower along with the rest of them. She’d quit SHIELD to become an independent representative of the Avengers, just like Hill, and the favorite half-serious topic of conversation the last few weeks had been what her superhero suit was going to look like.

From the tone of their voices, though, this wasn’t a social call. He was close enough he could hear most of the conversation, but he waited until they said their goodbyes and hung up. “Problems with Rumlow?” he asked quietly.

“Technically, no.” Bucky leaned down to look at him, hair falling forward. “But she and Hill are trying to referee an international free-for-all over who gets to try Rumlow and Co. for their crimes, and she’s wondering if you have an opinion.”

Steve rubbed a hand over his eyes, already dreading the fact that he was probably going to have to get involved at some point. Sharon and Hill were a thousand times better at all this than he was, but apparently his “speeches” could guilt people into things common sense couldn’t. “I’m happy to hand him over to anyone who can keep him contained well enough that he doesn’t hurt anyone ever again.”

“That was essentially what I told her, but if you want I can pass along the official quote.” His expression turned solemn.“SHIELD also wants to help coordinate the trial world tour.”

Anger rose up, not at all dulled by time. “Not a chance. We still don’t know if we’ve really cleaned them out.”

“Even if Fury’s the one who made the request?”

Steve hesitated at that, then closed his eyes. “What do you think? You have more reason to hate SHIELD than any of us.”

“Which is why I told her to trust her judgment.” Bucky sighed, fingertips tracing patterns along Steve’s arm. “But we’re still probably going to get called in.”

“Yeah.” Steve watched Bucky’s face, chest tightening with a strange mixture of longing and regret he couldn't put a name to. "Are you really okay with all this, Buck?"

He raised an eyebrow in response, but Steve didn't elaborate. They both knew Bucky knew exactly what he meant.

Finally, Bucky's expression shifted into something warm and faintly amused. Only someone who spent a lot of time watching him would see how deliberate it was. "I haven't wanted to tell you, but your snoring has been pretty much a constant torment in my life."

That was Bucky, putting aside his own feelings to comfort the people he loved. The pressure in Steve's chest only got worse as he threaded his fingers through Bucky's. "I think you're confused. You're the snorer in this relationship."

Bucky made a tsking noise as he bent down for a kiss. "The real dark secret of the Avengers is how delusional Captain America is."

000

_The bodies changed sometimes. Rhodey showed up soon after the Battle of New York. Wilson started appearing in the pile after Cap dragged him home. The kid from Brooklyn in the spider cosplay was even there occasionally, even though there was no way in hell Tony would drag him into a fight this big. Pepper was there more often than she wasn't, sometimes in one of her CEO outfits and sometimes in an Iron Man suit._

_The one thing that didn't change was that he was always, always the only one left alive. He had failed them all, somehow, and his punishment for that was to be as alone as one person could possibly be._

Tony woke up gasping, the panic attack slamming into him as ruthlessly as it always did. He closed his eyes and made himself start the breathing count, taking apart machines in his head and putting them back together. Pepper, Rhodey and Harley had finally convinced him that the panic attacks were no different than the arc reactor that had kept him alive for so long -- not a failure, but simply an ongoing problem that needed to have a workaround.

It wasn't long before he felt Pepper's arms tighten around him. "The usual?" she asked quietly. When he just nodded, not trusting his voice yet, she pressed a kiss against his bare shoulder. "It's been awhile." He could hear the sadness in her voice. "Is it the Mind Stone appearing?"

He shouldn't have told her. She was as smart as he was, and could pick up the implication of "new cosmic rock equals new potential invasion" as well as he could. But he always told her everything, even when it would be in her best interest for him not to.

He let out a breath. "You know how I feel about ridiculously gaudy jewelry."

She tucked her chin in the crook between his neck and shoulder. "Yeah, I do."

He turned around in her arms, hand sliding up to cradle the side of her face. "Have I mentioned how lucky I am that you have absolutely no taste in men?" he murmured.

She smiled softly, leaning in for another kiss. "Once or twice."

**Author's Note:**

> Come check out my [original fiction,](https://jennifferwardell.wixsite.com/mybooks) my [blog,](http://jennifferwardell.blogspot.com) or say hi to me on [Tumblr](http://sanctuaryforalluniverses.tumblr.com)!


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